In the prior art of attendance recorders, time clocks have been employed wherein the user removes a card from a rack, inserts it into the time clock for imprinting, and then returns it to the rack. Such time cards may have "In" and "Out" positions for such imprinting and the clock mechanism may have a carriage for receiving the card, which carriage is positioned by the clock at In and Out positions according to the time of the day. Where the user is actually going out at an In time, it may be possible for the user to override this mechanism to indicate that fact when imprinting the card. There is no guarantee that the user utilizes the correct card or is an unauthorized person for entry or exit, and there is no automatic reporting of the entry and exit to a central system.
The prior art also includes data gathering systems wherein there is a central system connected by wire to remote terminals. Such remote terminals may include card reading apparatus, for example, for reading a job ticket, and keyboard apparatus for entering information coordinate with the information read by the terminal from the card. Ordinarily, devices of this kind are not intended for rapid use by one person after another, as is the case of an attendance recorder, and may lack such features desirable in an attendance recorder as differentiation between entry and exit and provision of a logical output at the terminal.